A bit of dysfunction has crept into the council chambers at Belleville city hall.

Debate at Monday’s marathon council meeting got a little heated after Coun. Ryan Williams presented a motion calling for the city to provide loans up to $25,000 to private citizens to help people create secondary suites in their homes to be rented at 80 per cent of market value in a bid to help alleviate Belleville’s housing crisis.

When presenting his motion Williams tried to put forth an amendment to allow for a staff report on the issue, but Mayor Mitch Panciuk shot it down because it contravened Municipal Act procedural rules.

Williams objected to the mayor’s tone and said he shouldn’t be chided and said he wasn’t going to take it, feeling he had been belittled by the mayor.

Panciuk felt bringing forth an amendment at the last minute was disrespectful to all concerned and undermined the team approach they are trying to take.

Williams challenged the ruling but Councillors Pat Culhane, Bill Sandison, Sean Kelly and Kelly McCaw all sided with the mayor.

Panciuk said after nine months, including training sessions, a councilllor should know he can go to the mayor or to staff members and get information on how to present a motion properly.

Williams’ motion called for the use of funds from city reserves to create zero per cent interest loans spread over 15 years.

“We are in the midst of a housing crisis, a serious rental unit shortage in the city,” Williams stated in a press release issued Monday.

“We did have a successful Housing Summit, and we have identified several strategies to tackle the problems we see, including working with Hastings County, and the city developing an Affordable

Housing Community Improvement Plan (CIP). We expect this to be completed, on the city’s end, at the end of the year. One of the programs I’ve advocated for, is the incentive to see more secondary units created in homes. What this program I’m submitting for debate does, that is different from other municipalities, is that it looks at incentives of loans, instead of grants, for units, and not just secondary units but any unit that could be made into affordable housing. I’m prepared to amend the motion to start with a pilot, to feather this program in, as the CIP is developed, to ensure that we have the right processes in place by the City, for a full implementation in 2020. We need to get to work on the matters that matter, and deal with the things we can deal with today.”

The city had set a target of 1000 new affordable rental units to be created by 2025. Although this program would be ambitious, it would at its maximum, only target 250 of the 1000 units, or 50 units a year.

The pilot partnership would include the Quinte Home Builders Association (QHBA), a co-chair of the Housing Summit held in March.

QHBA Executive Officer Ruth Estwick and President John-Ross Parks both stated in a letter of support for Williams’ pilot project, “The QHBA is delighted to hear that the City of Belleville is considering a pilot program to address housing. The association and its membership believe in increasing housing supply to address affordability as we provided in this year’s Housing Summit and we are committed to continued partnerships and efforts to address this issue in our region.”

Williams felt his plan would be at minimal cost to taxpayers. Each $25,000 loan, as proposed, would come from city reserves that currently sit in bank accounts at low-interest bearing revenue of around 2.5 per cent. The money would be loaned, and then retained over a 15-year period. The cost, then, is interest revenue lost from sitting in an account, plus staff administration of the program. For $25,000, for one year, that cost could be as little as $575 plus administration, and would decrease every year the loan was returned. The loan, additionally, could be placed on the tax bill for the property improved, therefore, the risk associated with the loan could be minimized.

“Affordable housing is going to take a whole slew of different efforts to fix, and this is just one idea of many that will be put forth as this issue is tackled. This is a very small piece of a very large puzzle,” Williams said.

“This is a problem that is spread throughout Ontario and Canada and we need to start thinking outside the box to come up with different ideas, because what has been done in Ontario and Canada is not enough. We need to come up with new innovative ideas, things that have not been done before, in order to be progressive with this issue, that is rapidly growing. Loyalist College, for instance, is looking at an increase of (500) international students in September, who will need rental housing.”

However, with staff in the process of creating a CIP for affordable housing, other councillors raised a myriad of concerns, including the fact that cities can’t legally provide loans to individuals unless they specifically create a Community Incentive Plan that allows it.

Coun. McCaw raised a number of issues with Williams’ proposal, including how council would enforce the 80 per cent of market value rent and what happens if the property sells, as well as noting any person with good credit who wanted to create a secondary suite could easily get a loan at a bank.

Coun. Sandison felt the move was premature since staff are working on a CIP that includes plans for secondary suites, saying Williams bringing in his own ideas ahead of staff was like the wild, wild west and he wasn’t happy with it.

Panciuk said while it’s OK for debate to get a little heated around the council horsehoe, personalizing things doesn’t serve council or its constituents.

In a recorded vote, council voted 6-2 against providing loans to private citizens. Only Coun. Chris Malette supported Williams’ motion. Coun. Paul Carr was absent.